give me a fucking break. mlk did much to advance civil rights and human rights. but to be so bold to make this statement is beyond ludicrous

Fact is, as a white woman I have posted this in the AA Group here for years. They did not find it ludicrous. I was a member of that group...sadly they were chased off the board for stating their opinions and outright concern.

And yes, you should read the whole essay.

real people. dead people.

I posted an essay by a black man. You, first of all disagreed and called it ludicrous. Then admitted you never even read it. Then you come back with eased not ended (the fear)....just that. That is not an answer to the question as to why you find...now that you finally read the whole article, it to be ludicrous. A black mans feelings are ludicrous? Really?

Let me preface this by saying the statement “he ended the terror of living as a black person...” by itself does seem absolutely ridiculous. And I believe it is used in the article as hyperbole to an extent.


What the article is claiming is that he ended black people being terrified into inaction.

It is saying that black people learned that standing up together, resisting and pushing back - even if it meant being jailed, taking a beating, or worse - was preferable to passively living in oppression because you were scared of being jailed, taking a beating, or worse.

Kind of like dealing with a bully. They have all the power when everyone is afraid to stand up to them. But once you learn to stand up to them, you take a lot of their power away. It doesn’t mean they can’t hurt or threaten you anymore. But your fear of them is no longer controlling you.

Unless we were living under a rock (or a robe). But, to suggest that most of us did not understand is...inaccurate.

I have been posting variations of Hamden Rice's essay for years here, usually during Black History month or the anniversary of his death. My guess is that you never read past the title, a semi long read but full of our countries long sad history. I have in the past posted this in our now silent African American Group. Do you know why that group is now silent? They were run off.

I miss them all. They were a very welcoming group to outsiders like myself, a white woman.

This article was always well received. Not sure what has changed in 2019.

up and make more people realize that there was a major problem with racism especially in the south and that was a huge accomplishment which paved the way to trying to address it.
The struggle to stop it though continues.

"college stunts," "no big deal," "not worth destroying someone over," etc.

I imagine that thread is keeping folks pretty busy ...

Thank you.

Well worth reading.

which was pointed out to you when you posted this same article just under a year ago.

The entire thread containing his posts is here, for those who’d like to satisfy their curiosity.

I remember that bigot. Thanks!

Yuck.

writing kind of negates the outrage of the posting of essays from other banned writers.

fail to fully appreciate how blacks lived a century ago, decades ago or even today.

What interests me is that Black people have endured so much
in the way of violence and poverty; and yet they have not lost
their hearts or their humanity the way white people have done.

I have always thought that all white people should interact with
people who are not white on a close, personal level from the time
they are very young ... get to know people, play and intereact
with them, be part of their lives ... There is no way this can happen
and maintain hate and racism ... unless you are born incapable of
empathy and understanding, like maybe a psychopath or something.

For me, MLK embodied this ideal -- of everyone living together in a
peaceful, meaningful way.

So, the fact that segregation existed; and that Black people were
targeted for abuse, lynching, prison, and exploitation did mean that
they would have to learn how to survive, especially in the South.
That MLK helped them to do this is indeed part of his legacy.

I'm old enough to remember some of the tension between younger people who were inspired by MalcolmX and the more activist leaders of the late 60s, and the older people who'd lived through the strikes and the nonviolent resistance actions of the 50s and early 60s.

A colleague who'd been part of SNCC explained to me once that it was inevitable that people who didn't live through it would forget what it had been like. He said something to the effect of "Each generation has to re-invent the struggle in their own terms, but it's still important to learn from those who've gone before.

This jumped out at me:

Why would you link to that?